Humans cannot live without a general ideal image, they either have one and strive to reach it or are looking for one and will not rest until they find it. In all societies and cultures people have ideal images that give them energy and enthusiasm. By ideal image I mean a perfect and flawless image. Some have an ideal image of religious figures or an ideal image of their country, city, tribe, race etc. The more the image is clear and pure the more a person becomes energetic and enthusiastic. That's why people often need to prevent whatever might disrupt their ideal image. And the more that image is narrow and defective the more it causes fanaticism and intolerance.

The ideal image is a primary emotional need that takes up much of our thinking, and from that need stems the need for the role model. The search for a role model is a search for someone who can provide us with the ideal image we are looking for.

One hole in that perfect ideal image, if not repaired, is enough to gradually spoil it. That's why defense is crucial in fanaticism in order to protect the perfection of the image. When someone finds a flaw in their ideal image, they'll start looking for another ideal image, and if they didn’t find one they'll build their own ideal image by assembling parts of different ideal images. This assembled image will make them weak because it contains contradictions.

This utterly perfect image covers all areas of life including material ones, making the person supposes perfection and excellence even in material objects that are shared by everyone. For instance, if someone is attracted and polarized toward a culture different than theirs, they'll view this culture as totally ideal, even their soil is better than theirs, their air is better, their language, their skin, their names, their farming tools, their art, their literature, their animals, their garbage, and everything in them, around them, above them and below them is better!        

This is a state of total polarization (extreme attraction), and there exists a state of partial polarization. Fanaticism and polarization happens only when the ideal image is formed in the person's mind and imagination. The ideal image causes the state of emotional and mental polarization. The polarized individual toward a society different that their own, be that society in the past or the present, is a clear representation of the effect of the ideal image that every human needs. They search for it motivated by the feeling that naturally seeks its creator and His perfect ideal path. The Quran said: " O man, you are striving unto your Lord and you will meet Him", every human is striving to God.  

That's why Plato wasn’t totally unrealistic, as materialists claim, when he spoke of utopia, he was motivated by a natural human need. Humans can't work except when they have an ideal image or when they're searching for one. A person who has two or more contradicting ideal images will be weak and shaky, while a person who has one ideal image will be strong, active and confident.        

Whenever you find enthusiasm and fanaticism be sure that there is an ideal image behind it, whether true or false, and whether it exists in reality or trying to make it a reality, what matters is that they view it as ideal. Idealism supplies people with energy and determination. Thus, we can call humans : "idealistic creatures" at least in terms of motivation. The reason behind over enthusiasm is concentrating on one ideal image. A fanatic to their ideology sees it as perfectly flawless, and also sees no perfection in other ideologies else they wouldn't be fanatic. However, who wobbles between several contradicting ideal images is weak, and the weakest of all is one who has no ideal image and can't create one, this may lead them to feel that life is absurd and even think of suicide.     

Having multiple ideal images is what causes the surprising total change in some people, like when someone who's been living a materialistic life suddenly shifts to a strong religious adherence. The reason is that the religious ideal image was pressuring them. We might also find a religious person who has an ideal image of the materialistic secular life, which might make them change suddenly from religious to secular or even atheistic lifestyle, due to the pressure of the secular ideal image they have.     

People who have a defective ideal image often resort to isolation, because interaction with people with different ideal images exposes the flaws in their partial ideal image. The ideal image is very sensitive to criticism, that's why they resort to isolation or even attempt to forcefully silence the different opinion. Criticizing the ideal image of someone is very painful to them, for when you make people question their ideal image you're now crushing their source of enthusiasm, hopes and zest for life.

However, we should always follow the truth. In fact, following the truth is part of true idealism, even we if had to sacrifice an image we're used to. All the ideal images that are based on isolation will be affected, for the world now is a small village. Hence, complete isolation is impossible. Only the true ideal image will stand, which respects all the human feelings. This true ideal image is God's straight path. The strongest ideal image is the one most open to criticism and welcomes questioning. It is the one that's capable of convincing both the mind and the feeling not one without the other, and that's what human-made ideologies don't have.       




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